My name is Allan, and I wish to enter the game development industry. I have undertaken a Digital Media Cert IV course at TAFE which deals with very basic animation, screen design, advertisements, graphic creation such as logo's, icons. I have no clue where to go from there. What courses should I take if I wish to enter into the 3d graphic side of the game development industry?

In the industry there is a lot more emphasis on what you can do rather then what you have been taught. So there are a number of things you could do at this point. The standards (as I know them) in the industry are 3Dstudio Max, Maya, and a little little little bit of ZBrush.

If you are familiar with any of these programs I would suggest that you make a portfolio and try for a few positions. If that does not work, just model more and more and keep trying with better and better stuff.

If you don't know any of these programs but have access to them then I would suggest that you take some online tutorials. There are a ton of good ones out there.

If you don't have access to these then I would suggest you take wither a 3dAnimation course if your more into cinimatics and bring a model to life or a 3Dmodeling course for game design if you are more interested in the actual building of the character. The animation tends to be in Maya and the building is in Max. Maya is a bit better at handling high polly stuff from what I understand so it's the better choice for animation. Many of the art institutes around the world have these courses.